Over the past few decades there has been a change in the way women have been viewed. At a societal level women were once seen as 'wives and wombs'. Over time there has been a gradual shift towards women being seen as 'mothers and more'. Similarly, there have been changes in the way women's health is viewed.

Endometriosis is a benign disease defined as the presence of endometrial glands and stroma outside the uterus. Its pathogenesis and optimal management remain controversial, and its true prevalence is unknown. Endometriosis can be debilitating and can affect the psychosocial functioning of women.

In this article I will briefly discuss the epidemiology of anxiety disorders in pregnancy and postnatally. I will then focus on the clinical presentation of these disorders and management issues that are specific to pregnancy and the postnatal period.

Benign breast disease is common, although the incidence is sparsely documented in the literature and is probably quite underestimated. The main reason is that it is regarded as unimportant, with far more attention being focused on breast cancer. However, benign breast disease is far more common than breast cancer. There is now increasing interest because patients demand investigation and treatment of their symptoms.

Most discussions on women's health in South Africa have focused on two interconnected areas, i.e. sexual and reproductive morbidity and mortality and HIV / AIDS. This is not surprising, given the extent of these problems and the harmful effects they continue to have on so many women's lives. However, it is important that they are placed in the context of broader changes in South African life and the additional health hazards these developments may pose for women.

Where hormone therapy in the menopause is concerned a line was drawn on 9 July 2002 between two eras : the pre- and post-Women's Health Initiative study. On this day the combined oestrogen-progestogen arm of the largest randomised controlled trial (RCT) was discontinued prematurely at just past 5 years.

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines abortion as a procedure for terminating an unintended pregnancy either by a person without the necessary skills or in an environment without the minimum medical standards or both.

In 1997 a law reform process started to change the existing law on rape. After 10 years of drafting and public consultation, the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Act, No. 32 of 2007 - less formally referred to as the Sexual Offences Act - was finally passed by Parliament and signed by the President on 13 December 2007. The new Act creates a range of new offences (58 in total) and addresses a wide range of issues relating to the management of sexual offences. The Act sets out to afford complainants of sexual offences 'the maximum and least traumatising protection that the law can provide'. To achieve this objective, the legislation repealed certain outdated common law crimes such as rape and indecent assault and replaced them with new, extended statutory offences.

In December 2007 the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Act 32 of 2007, commonly referred to as the Sexual Offences Act, was signed into law. The legislation repealed outdated common law crimes, created new statutory offences and amended criminal procedural law in order to afford victims 'the maximum and least traumatising protection that the law can provide' (Section 2 of the Sexual Offences Act).

The combined oral contraceptive (COC) is among the most widely used methods of contraception worldwide. The COC is easy to use and extremely effective. Women using the COC may sooner or later require an antibiotic, raising the concern of the unsought COC-antibiotic interaction that may decrease efficacy of the COC and lead to an unwanted pregnancy. In order to address the COC-antibiotic interaction and its potential risk adequately, some knowledge of COC metabolism is required.